Telling differences between a Chinese and Japanese in WW2

I think this was posted a long time ago on this forum, though I may be mistaken. I have various propaganda posters distributed by the Americans during WWII, most of them saying how important "our Chinese friends" are to the war...





I'm always skeptical of my Asian friends who say, "Oh I can tell those Japanese apart from us Chinese". No, you can't, at least not reliably. If only examining pure facial features, much of the time you aren't going to be able to tell Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese, or Chinese apart. (Sometimes this applies to the Vietnamese as well) Generally it's from fashion style...

I can usually tell between a Korean, and Chinese, and a Japanese. Simply because the expatriot population in the US are from different regions.

Originally Posted by eecsmaster

I can usually tell between a Korean, and Chinese, and a Japanese.

It's easy to say that, but more difficult in practice. Friends of mine said they know Chinese/Japanese who have been abroad in those countries, and people they've met honestly thought they were nationals.

Well, it's easier to tell apart a Chinese, Korean and Japanese or even Vietnamese if those people are from their origin countries. But in case their were born and grown up in a different country, identify them will be much harder. For example, I'm a Chinese born & live in Cambodia, some time when I first see somebody and suppose he/she is a Khmer (Cambodian native people) due to his/her skin color. But when he/she talks that would really give me a surprise, he/she is a pure Chinese! That's why here we have a term "Black Chinese" (a Chinese who looks very like a Khmer). 人不可冒相.

You are distinguishing between southern Chinese and northern Chinese. There are some differences between the two, southern Chinese seem more affliated with Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), Austroasiatic (Vietnamese/Khmer/Thai), while northern Chinese are more connected with Altaic, Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic peoples.

You can tell a southern Chinese from northern Chinese, Korean or Japanese (so long he's not Okinawan), but between northern Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or even with Mongolian, Turkic or Tibetan, its much harder. You can tell Okinawans apart from mainland Japanese, but between Okinawans and southern Chinese its much harder, or even with Filipino or Malaysian for the latter.

There seems to be two distinct Asiatic groups, the dividing line is in the north and the south of the Yangtze river.

This is intresting....I'm one of the very few Black people that can tell, most times , the diffrent Asian races apart. clothing, language, manerisims have a lot to with it.

Here is a quiz for you gents. below is a 5 year old or so picture of my ex-wife. She was born in the Philippines. What other nationalities do you think she may be?

Originally Posted by crobato

You are distinguishing between southern Chinese and northern Chinese. There are some differences between the two, southern Chinese seem more affliated with Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), Austroasiatic (Vietnamese/Khmer/Thai), while northern Chinese are more connected with Altaic, Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic peoples.

Crobato:

I don't understand why you group the Vietnamese together with with Khmer/Thai? Just because they are all located in South-East Asia? I'd say the pure Khmer and pure Thai look alike; dark yellow skin (we call it black), big eyes, curved hair. While the Vietnamese are light yellow skin (we call it white) and straight hair. They look very different to the Khmer/Thai and much like Chinese, thus they have similar tradition to the Chinese.

Originally Posted by crobato

You can tell a southern Chinese from northern Chinese, Korean or Japanese (so long he's not Okinawan), but between northern Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or even with Mongolian, Turkic or Tibetan, its much harder. You can tell Okinawans apart from mainland Japanese, but between Okinawans and southern Chinese its much harder, or even with Filipino or Malaysian for the latter.

There seems to be two distinct Asiatic groups, the dividing line is in the north and the south of the Yangtze river.

Hello people. This is my very first post in this forum. Just feel like commenting on this. I have no problem distinguishing between a ethnic chinese and the malays. There are obvious differences. Furthermore, it's not a problem at all for me to tell a local malay from the Thais or, for that matter, the burmese too - Malaysia have quite a lot of migrant workers from just across the border.

I do agree some Filipinos (from the northen part of Phillipines?) do have a bit of chinese features.

I was stationed in the Philippines for over two years. There thousands of Chinese in the Philippines. And thousands more people in the Philippines of mixed race.

According to a recent study, the malays can be further cathegorized into subgroups. I suspect this too applies to the majority original philipinos.

The Philippines is unique contry in Asia. It was one of the first to be colonized and therefore, all semblance of the native culture died out or became latinized. The Philippines, culturaly, has more in common with Latin America than the rest of Asia. As a result, the majority of Filipinos are mixed. In the Philippines, these are called mestizos.
The Philippines has the largest number of Eurasians in the world.

Spanish Mestizos (3% of the population)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-Filipino

One of the richest families in the Philippines are the AYALA clan (Spanish Mestizo)
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/EGES.html

Chinese Mestizos "tsinoy" (11.5% of population is pure Chinese)
98 percent of them came from Fujian Province
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese-Filipino

The top 2 richest men the Philippines are Henry Sy and Lucio Tan (Chinese)
http://www.forbes.com//lists/2006/10/FQVX.html
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/8U2J.html

Japanese Mestizos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-Filipino

Here are the rest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_mestizo

It is not uncommon to find Filipinos with both Malay, Spanish, and Chinese mix.

IDonT is so correct. In fact most Filipinos are of mixed race. My ex-wife is part Filipino,Japanese, white American and European Spanish.

It's really hard to tell a Chinese from a Japanese.

A few weeks ago I crossed a NHK site refered in Japan News about the root of Japanese. The biggest gene factors in Japanese gene pool are, surprisely

Chinese(~25%) and Korean(~21%)

Originally Posted by SteelBird

Crobato:

I don't understand why you group the Vietnamese together with with Khmer/Thai? Just because they are all located in South-East Asia? I'd say the pure Khmer and pure Thai look alike; dark yellow skin (we call it black), big eyes, curved hair. While the Vietnamese are light yellow skin (we call it white) and straight hair. They look very different to the Khmer/Thai and much like Chinese, thus they have similar tradition to the Chinese.

My mistake. Vietnamese are sometimes referred to as Austroasiatic by anthropologists. Khmer/Thai are sometimes referred to as Austrotai. From what I read before, there are basically five austroasian groups.